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Norwegian Fjords

Sail Date:
September 2013

Destination:
Baltic Sea

Embarkation:
Harwich

I think it is always important to understand who is providing a review on this site. There is such a diverse community of cruisers that perspective is extremely important. We are a 40-something couple with two young children, 5 and 4. We have done quite a bit of cruising with our children, we always focus on the itinerary first.

Harwich - Just one observation regarding departure - take the train! Unless you plan to tour England a few days before the cruise, driving in England (particularly this route) is very slow and difficult. Google maps quoted a two hour drive, it took us four hours due to heavy construction on the M25, pretty much the whole way around London. The train station is literally a hop, skip and jump to the cruise terminal.

Since we were the last folks to arrive in the cruise terminal, check-in was smooth, quick, and easy. The ship design is generally pretty lackluster, and shows its age. The process of "Solsticizing" this ship lead to a lot of More
questionable design changes. For instance, the kids club took over half of the forward nightclub, the Constellation Lounge.

Gym

The gym was at the front of the ship so it was a terrific location to hit the treadmill in the morning as the ship sailed through the Fjord. I was there at 6am to 6:30 and was usually one of two or three people in there. It didn't pick up until 7am when the staff came on duty.

Food/Dining

Celebrity did a good job with food quality, I was a little surprised that a ship with such a fabulous pastry chef didn't have a midnight buffet on a 10-night cruise. Breakfast in the buffet was ok. In my opinion all of the ships serve the same stuff, there is pretty much everything you could want for breakfast. The buffet did have a nice(but slow) eggs benedict counter. We ate in the main dining room most nights, the menu was diverse enough night after night that there was always something new to try and the staples steak and salmon were good. The chocolate cake served in the main dining room was to die for. It was so good, we took photos of it. Lots of photos. We dined one night at the Qsine restaurant, this is a very cool concept but make an early reservation as you would need several hours to try several of the menu items. Service is very slow. Celebrity does the RCCL Opening dining concept which to me falls quite short of being an open dining concept since they take reservations; they need to take a lesson from NCL on this - first come, first serve.

Entertainment

The entertainment was ok. The production dancers were very good, the production singers - not so much (except for one of the female leads). The contortionist couple were amazing. Celebrity always caters toward the older crowd when it comes to entertainment so it didn't surprise me to see a concert pianist in the theater one night. However, the pianist, Brooks Aheron, was extremely entertaining for all ages. The only real miss for us in the theatre was a female soloist who had been on The Voice UK. The club and lounge singers did a good job.

Kids Club

As previously mentioned the kids club took over a portion of the Constellation Lounge, so it provided great views for the youngsters but the club design was an after thought. No jungle gyms to keep the youngsters active like Disney or Norwegian. Considering what they had to work with, the crew of the kids club did a great job keeping the kids entertained and interested. The hours of the club were a little odd, i.e. it completely shut down from 5pm-7pm every night. The flip side is that we didn't have to pay for the club in ports unless we left them for lunch. Most of the cruise lines use that tactic on sea days (to make sure the kids get fed). It was a annoying that they did it everyday. My gauge on the quality of the kids club is whether or not my kids are pestering me to go there throughout the cruise. I'm happy to report they never lost interest! (To date - Only the RCCL clubs hold the honor of boring my children)

Ports: (We did not go on any ship-sponsored excursions)

Oslo

We did the City Sightseeing hop-on/hop-off in Oslo since we had never been to Norway before. We used City Sightseeing in several of the cities and the buses usually had wifi onboard. If you've never done an Icebar before, the Oslo one is small but worth the price.

Stavanger

Stavanger is a quaint little city. There is a mall/grocery store close to the port if you need any supplies.

Flam

Flam is an incredibly beautiful place. I will spend the rest of my life trying to figure out how to retire there. These is a walking loop from the port is about a 2 mile circuit but it will take several hours due to all of the photos you'll have to take. (if we didn't have the kids with us I would have rented bikes here).

Alesund - It rained heavily the day we were here. This is a quaint little city but I assume the reason the ship was in port for 12 hours there had to do with timing into the fjords. I recommend an excursion that takes you outside of Alesund.

Geiranger - Beautiful, but this place was a zoo when we were there due to having three cruise ships in port that day. The Infinity had to use the tenders. There are several tourists buses that will drive you to the scenic overlooks. City Sightseeing also ran a bus service to the overlooks. One tip on Geiranger - get up early to get a photo of the Seven Sisters waterfall as the ship sails into Gerainger. In the afternoon, leaving Geiranger, they do the whole production and photo op turning the ship 365 degrees. However, due to the time of day you will most likely be taking your photos in to the sun.

Olden - Beautiful place and similar to Olden, I would love to retire here. Again, if we didn't have the kids here we would have rented bikes. There is a glacier tour here, but if you have done Alaska, you'll be disappointed.

Bergen - This historic capital of Norway seemed to have more life than the current capital. We also lucked out in having a beautiful sunny day in Europe's rainiest city. Everything was packed with tourists, not just from the ships. It was crowded, very crowded. I disembarked from Bergen and hopped a flight back to US due to work obligations. It would be a great end to a cruise to hop off in Bergen and tour around Norway a little more, just a thought. Several folks disembarked with me in Bergen, I suspect that was their plan. Less

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Cabin review: Celebrity Infinity

Port and Shore Excursions

Bergen - This historic capital of Norway seemed to have more life than the current capital. We also lucked out in having a beautiful sunny day in Europe's rainiest city. Everything was packed with tourists, not just from the ships. It was crowded, very crowded.

Flam is an incredibly beautiful place. I will spend the rest of my life trying to figure out how to retire there. These is a walking loop from the port is about a 2 mile circuit but it will take several hours due to all of the photos you'll have to take. (if we didn't have the kids with us I would have rented bikes here).

We did the City Sightseeing hop-on/hop-off in Oslo since we had never been to Norway before. We used City Sightseeing in several of the cities and the buses usually had wifi onboard. If you've never done an Icebar before, the Oslo one is small but worth the price.